Friday, February 27, 2009

I ran across a blog review of my work which is well written and interesting. The rest of the blog is also definitely worth checking out. Written by Todd Richardson out of Boston and full of interesting posts about typography, photography, arts and music.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

My friend, Donna Wilson has just updated her wedding themed website and you should go check it out. Donna's work combines sophisticated illustration, beautiful patterns and playful color with a personal twist.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

On March 5, 2009 Jane Maxwell will have an art opening of her new work at Caldwell Snyder Gallery in San Francisco. Jane and I used to show together at Hubert Gallery in New York and have a mutual admiration for each others work.

Jane's work uses layers of vintage fruit crate labels collaged with encaustic and paint on panel. Her subject is the female form and her concept deals with the female self body image and the feminine ideal in our culture.

Jane's use of the female form has hints of the Vargas girls of the 1940's. I especially love her tongue in cheek use of type in the fruit labels to make reference to women's body parts.

February 6, 2009 marks the opening for Shepard Fairey's art exhibit at the ICA in Boston. The exhibit serves as a retrospective for Fairey's work over the past two decades and he has also been invited to make art in several public spaces around the Boston area.

Fairey's work needs no introduction. It is pure and the message is clear. His influences range from Russian constructivist propoganda posters to the pop sensibility of Andy Warhol to the urban environment and he cultivates it all into a clean vision that is clearly all his own.

Noone has captured the attention of art critics as Fairey has in recent memory. His work speaks to our generation in a way that punk rock spoke to us in the early 80's. It is a call to question everything. Our government, our police force, our environment and most importantly, ourselves.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

My friend, Molly Quan opened up her store, Life + Limb, last year and it has been getting rave reviews. Life + Limb focuses onrare plants and modern home accessories. She has done a great job at offering unique and interesting product as well as great artwork.

This month Life + Limb features the photography of Anthony Georgis. Georgis' photographs are dreamy and beautiful. They are quiet and serene as they capture warm light and breeze through an open door, a perfect day at the beach or a bad day in the rain. The show runs through the end of February so go check them out if you are around.

Mark Bradford makes lush, beautiful collages that act as imaginary maps. I was able to see his large scale works at The New Museum in New York and the ICA in Boston and they are incredibly detailed works of art.

Bradford’s abstractions unite high art and popular culture as unorthodox tableaux of unequivocal beauty. Working in both paint and collage, Bradford incorporates elements from his daily life into his canvases: remnants of found posters and billboards, graffitied stencils and logos, and hairdresser’s permanent endpapers he’s collected from his other profession as a stylist.

Monday, February 9, 2009

I recently went on a Chelsea art walk and came across the work of Richard Klein at Caran Golden Fine Art. This is a two person show with Julie Rofman.

Klein's newest body of work expands on his ongoing investigation of the physical versus the immaterial. Primarily utilizing found glass objects, beginning with his signature eyeglass lenses, the artist’s pallet has expanded from the purely optical to components such as ashtrays, jar lids, speakers. Strategically placed corporate logos bring an additional dimension to the conceptual depth of Klein’s work.

I was blown away by the beauty of Klein's sculptures. The way that they sit within the space and capture the light against the wall is stunning. My favorite piece in the show is "Transparency" which is the piece you are confronted with upon entering the gallery. The show runs through February 21, 2009 so there is still time to go see the works.

Unfortunately I missed Vik Muniz's "Verso" show at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in Chelsea, but I was able to see the catalogue of the work. Not only is the concept brilliant but the execution is flawless. Muniz recreated the backs of some of the worlds most famous paintings with every detail intact right down to the yellowing of the aged labels from different museums. It includes all of the scars and travel history that one never gets to see because it is on the unseen side.

Here is a brief statement of the work:

"Whenever someone wants to see if an artwork is 'real', the first gesture is to look at its back or at it's base; the part of it that normally isn't visible to anyone else but experts, dealers, museum conservators or the artists' themselves. This happens because while the image's objective is to remain eternally the same, its support is constantly changing, telling its story, showing its scars, its labels and periodic clichés. So when a cousin of mine told me his 7-year old could paint a Picasso, I told him 'probably, but he couldn't do the back'. As a teenager, I used to fix the neighbor's TV as a hobby. I wanted to learn how to fix clocks too. Whenever something's function is basically visual, there is always an opening in the back for the curious to do it damage."

Sunday, February 8, 2009

I have followed the work of Jay Kelly for a few years now. We have both shown at the same galleries in the past and I have always loved his work. Kelly's art combines multiple image collaged with contrasting type to evoke emotion. His words hint at the larger picture while his images are meant to tell the more intimate details of the story. He uses his own photography as well as printed material, paint and resin to create his art.

What I like best about his art is that there is a contemporary sensibility to it but there is also a nostalgic element that draws me in to read further into the pieces. His use of typography shows his roots of graphic design and I feel adds to the strength of his composition.

Kelly is currently showing at Phoenix Gallery in beautiful Park City, Utah.

About Me

Robert Mars’ artwork chronicles an evolving fascination with the Golden Age of American popular culture and celebrates the icons of the 1950’s and 60’s
by taking inspiration from this culture long past. Through the application of a rich color palette and tongue-in-cheek attitude, Mars’ paintings evoke a
vintage quality of design and pay homage to the idealized age of growth and hopefulness that was prevalent in the USA at the end of the Depression.
A time before the internet and mobile technology, where information was not instantly available to millions and there was no such thing as instant internet
celebrities, and instead people lived with the myth of the unique, untouchable and unforgettable personalities of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, James
Dean, Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley.
Mars’ work is exhibited with the likes of Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, and Robert Rauschenberg,
and has been shown worldwide including galleries in Munich, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, Australia, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, Paris, Aspen, and Bulgaria.